Food Chain Magnate

This week I had an amazing time playing **Food Chain Magnate**, one of my favorite games. I often heard about how heavy it is, so when I played for the first time some months ago I watched a video, scared of having a hard time learning the rules. They are SO EASY. Every detail goes great with the theme, so whenever I read a rule I thought: "Well yeah, it makes sense", and I don't even think there are so many rules.

So, the conclusion after game 2 is I think this is a game that has the potential to be really miserable for players, or be an epic battle of the minds, with an ability to create stories. Like how Food Chain Magnate can be the most miserable experience when you know you've lost 20 minutes in, or a terrific contest that'll have you discussing for hours afterwards.

**Food Chain Magnate** where you're practically guaranteed to ruin any chance you have at winning in the first two or three turns unless you've played the game multiple times. **1817** demands a lot from players, even for an *18xx* game.

**Food Chain Magnate** the tension created by the choice of a strategy, the reveal of the cards and then the small recruitment allowing you to leap forward, surprise opponents and sneak a lot of sales ... Then final count and you still lose ... Handycon 2019.

My two would be **Food Chain Magnate** and **Pandemic Legacy Season 1**. **Food Chain** just seemed to have a runaway leader problem, and if you got behind, there was no chance of coming back, so you sat for two hours maybe selling one or two things while the leader sells to every house. I also didn't really like the CFO(I think) milestone, that gave you 50% more money every round, the winner always had that card. With **Pandemic** maybe I just expected more, I am not a huge fan of regular pandemic, it's fine but I don't really get too into it.

Lately my favorite has been Food Chain Magnate. I usually don't like harshly competitive games, or ones where you have to pay attention to every opponent's turn and react to them. But something about FCM gets me in the zone of a good Euro, while still having a really interesting decision space, while feeling like I really earn my victory.

For me it's probably Food Chain Magnate. I like the idea of it in theory, but I've skimmed the rules and I just feel like it'd be way too heavy for me. Also, I've heard from some people on here that it's a game where you can kinda screw yourself over from the first turn or two, and I really dislike games where you can dig yourself into a hole that you can't get out of.